Where Are We Headed? A Brief Look at Space Industry Developments

The FAA estimates that the sheer size of the global space transportation industry is a staggering $324 billion. With $125 billion, the United States takes up over a third of the market. The majority of this is the $87 billion generated by the satellite industry, which includes satellite services, satellite manufacturing, satellite ground equipment and launch services. A further $38 billion are accounted for by U.S. government space programs, and U.S. launch service providers accounted for about $2.4 billion in total revenues. And the space industry has barely gotten started with potential collaborations with other industries. At the 2015 SpaceCom Expo, several panels were dedicated to how a variety of industries can collaborate with the commercial space industry for mutual profits and benefits.

Smaller vehicles are not necessarily always cheaper on a per-pound to orbit basis; the opposite is often the case. But their advantage lies in more flexible scheduling, orbital inclination placement and therefore, their ability to meet the operator’s business goals. Previously, small satellites would often ride as secondary payloads on larger vehicles but would in return be dependent on that schedule, the previously defined orbital inclination of the primary payload, and therefore much less flexible. “Dedicated small launch capability being developed by multiple U.S. companies are scheduled to come online in the next two years, with many companies already manifesting flights,” said Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation to Congress recently.

Another trend of the industry has been reusability as it offers significant cost savings over traditional methods. Thousands of people have been glued to SpaceX’s livestreams of their successful Falcon9 barge and land landings this year and Blue Origin successfully used its New Shepard vehicle twice in 2015 and again in 2016. If we can routinely reuse launch vehicles or major pieces of launch vehicles, it will dramatically decrease the cost of a launch. So called suborbital reusable vehicles (SRVs) are an emerging industry of their own and can potentially support new markets. Hardly a month has gone by this past year without some form of notable success in this area of the space transportation industry – a testament to the lightning fast progress that’s happening every day.

In addition to the progress in the small and reusable launch vehicle sector, crewed and on-orbit vehicles are also seeing exciting new developments. Boeing is developing the CST-100 Starliner, which will be able to accommodate up to seven passengers to low-earth orbit destinations such as the ISS. It is expected to make its inaugural launch in 2017.